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Thenia fire, July 2016 الثنية · Thenia, Tidjelabine, Beni Amrane

Out · last measured on 9 Jul 2016

The fire started on 9 July 2016 in Thenia, Algeria, and satellites saw it burning for 1 day. Copernicus mapped a burnt perimeter of 731 hectares from satellite imagery, spread across 3 municipalities.

It is the 3th largest in Boumerdes since 2016 (of 11 with a page). Number 9 in Algeria in 2016, of 62.

We have the Copernicus perimeter for this fire, but the VIIRS sensors did not capture it in enough detail: no day-by-day evolution, but the split by municipality is there.

Burnt area
731ha
Copernicus perimeter
Duration
1day
9 Jul 2016 – 9 Jul 2016
Municipalities hit
3
communes
Started on
9 Jul
2016
Danger at start
31
High · FWI index

Where it burned

The weather it burned in

32°high
39km/h · peak gust
38%lowest humidity

It had gone 19 days without rain (1 mm or more) when it started.

This area had burned before

No earlier perimeters overlap this fire since 2016, when the satellite record begins.

What happened to each town

  1. Thenia الثنية 21,439 inhabitants · 1.4 km from the town where it started
    572 ha
    13 %
  2. Tidjelabine تجلابين 18,266 inhabitants · 3.2 km from the town
    145 ha
    3.5 %
  3. Beni Amrane بني عمران، الجزائر 23,621 inhabitants · 4.7 km from the town
    15 ha
    0.3 %

Burnt area inside each municipality, from crossing the official perimeter with administrative boundaries. The distance is from the town centre to the nearest fire: staying a kilometre away does not mean it reached the houses.

What burned

  • Other natural land52 %
  • Mixed forest46 %
  • Agricultural areas2.8 %

Land cover inside the perimeter as reported by Copernicus EFFIS (outside the Corine Land Cover area).

The weather day by day

ECMWF ERA5 reanalysis at the fire location, the standard reference for past weather, and the Canadian Fire Weather Index (the same system Copernicus uses), computed by WorldFires from that data. Days after the fire run until the first rain.

Open-Meteo.com (CC BY 4.0) · Copernicus Climate Change Service (ERA5)

Day High Min. humidity Peak gust Rain Danger (FWI)
9 Jul 32.2 °C 38 % 39 km/h 0.0 mm High 31
10 Jul after 28.7 °C 61 % 31 km/h 0.0 mm High 21
11 Jul after 30.2 °C 47 % 30 km/h 0.0 mm High 23
12 Jul after 30.0 °C 49 % 27 km/h 0.0 mm High 22
13 Jul after 28.0 °C 61 % 48 km/h 0.0 mm High 27
14 Jul after 26.5 °C 46 % 41 km/h 0.0 mm High 27
15 Jul after 24.7 °C 44 % 48 km/h 0.0 mm High 29
16 Jul after 26.3 °C 37 % 50 km/h 0.0 mm High 36
17 Jul after 27.7 °C 50 % 46 km/h 0.0 mm High 31
18 Jul after 28.0 °C 62 % 32 km/h 0.0 mm High 22
19 Jul after 29.0 °C 51 % 31 km/h 0.0 mm High 22

Before and after, from space

Drag the line to compare the same ground before the fire and after it.

Before · 2 Jul 2016
After · 16 Jul 2016

If the day is cloudy, change the date: each satellite passes once a day. In false colour the burnt ground looks brown or red.

The smoke

CAMS · Copernicus

On 11 July 2016 the air beside the fire reached 35 µg/m³ of PM2.5. That day averaged 30: 2.0 times the WHO daily guideline (15).

PM2.5 peak35 µg/m³
Days over the guideline5 days
PM1068 µg/m³
789101112
Good Fair Moderate Poor Very poor Extremely poor

Particles from the Copernicus CAMS model at the centre of the perimeter; these are not measurements in each town. The pale bar is the worst hour, the solid one the daily average.

Open-Meteo.com (CC BY 4.0) · Copernicus Atmosphere Monitoring Service (CAMS)

Other fires nearby

All fires in Algeria ›

Frequently asked questions

How long did the Thenia fire last?
Copernicus dates it between 9 July 2016 and 9 July 2016: 1 day between the first and last image with fire.
How much area did it burn?
The perimeter Copernicus measured from satellite imagery is 731 hectares (7.3 km²). Official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?
The fire entered 3 municipalities: Thenia (572 ha, 13 %); Tidjelabine (145 ha, 3.5 %); Beni Amrane (15 ha, 0.3 %).
Did the fire reach a town?
The closest fire to a town centre came within 1.4 km of Thenia. That is the distance to the perimeter or nearest hotspot; it does not mean it entered the houses.
What was the weather like?
During the fire the temperature reached 32.2 °C, humidity dropped to 38 % and gusts hit 39 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 31, class High.
Where does this data come from?
From the EFFIS (Copernicus) burnt perimeter, NASA FIRMS VIIRS hotspots and the administrative boundaries of Algeria (geoBoundaries). It is not an official report.

Where to verify it

A satellite detection is not an official report. Final figures and the fire’s status are published by each country’s emergency service.

Emergency number: 14 · 1021

Satellite cross-check

Does something look wrong on this page?

This page is built from satellite data and official records, and it sometimes gets things wrong: the wrong dates, the wrong town, two fires merged into one, or something that was not a wildfire at all. If you know this fire first-hand (you live nearby, saw it, fought it or reported on it), tell us what really happened and we will check it.

Report an error
What do you think is wrong?

We will only use your email to reply about this report. Privacy. This is not an emergency service: if there is a fire now, call 14 · 1021.

Where this data comes from

The perimeter and land cover come from the Copernicus European Forest Fire Information System (EFFIS), measured on MODIS and Sentinel-2 imagery and published under CC BY 4.0. Heat detections come from the VIIRS sensors aboard Suomi-NPP and NOAA-20, distributed by NASA FIRMS at 375 m resolution. Municipal boundaries come from geoBoundaries ADM3 (Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 2.0). The area per municipality is computed by WorldFires by crossing the perimeter with those boundaries, so it may differ slightly from each country’s official figure.